


colder without

by stainedglassdaredevil



Series: Kingdom Come [2]
Category: Daredevil (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Light Angst, Self-Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 19:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18784591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stainedglassdaredevil/pseuds/stainedglassdaredevil
Summary: The bathtub has always been Mattie's sanctuary





	colder without

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stainedglassdaredevil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stainedglassdaredevil/gifts).



> I'm trying to get better at actually writing instead of just thinking about what I want to write. So here's a brief look at stainedglassdaredevil's OC

Everything was cold. The porcelain tub, the water in it, the air in the bathroom and even the numb place inside that was normally filled with fire. 

Mattie smiled bitterly at her own poetry, moving her hands through the water slowly and suppressing a shiver. 

Before Daredevil, before Stick, even before the accident, the bathtub had always been a place of peace for her. Sitting in warm water until it went cold—more often than not with a battered library book gripped tightly in her damp hands—was a form of therapy. An escape from her affectionate yet distant father and the brother who always seemed to be stealing what should be hers.

Their father’s affection, the love and adoration of their doting teachers, the admiration of neighborhood kids who passed Mattie by every time for her better half. Matt was the rebel, the rogue, the saint, the child who could do no wrong. And Mattison, Mattison was his shadow. The unexpected addition. The odd girl with too big eyes and a fondness for doing things she shouldn’t. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time, always in the way, always more than what was asked for.

Confronting something so large and nameless—something frightening that ate at her even as young as she was—was an impossible task. It was easier to slip away and run the bath water, climbing into the tub to lose her troubles in the act of getting clean. 

When she was small the bathtub in their apartment had seemed so large. It was easier to lay flat on her back and move her pruned toes up and over the edge of the tub until she was fully submerged back then. 

As a child Mattie enjoyed finding ways to push herself. Options were limited back then, obviously, but every rule she broke was momentous all the same. There was nothing more beautiful than the stars poking holes through the blackened sky on an icy winter's night. 

Supposedly the stars are dimmer now above New York. 

This is her first time coming home in a week. Her night job kept her busy, and then a strange man with a velvet voice, and then visiting Father Lantom, and then camping out in her office on the Salvation Army futon they use as a substitute for proper furniture. 

There’s always something keeping her from going home. 

It’s late fall, and bathing in cold water is inadvisable to say the least. Mattie’s fingers are leaden and her heart sounds like it’s beating slower. Or is that the tap dripping? She’s only a little muzzy but it’s enough for the world to be muted and soft around her. There’s hardly ever an opportunity to relax this way; taking advantage of it is a foregone conclusion. 

Mattie sinks lower in the water and allows herself to rest for the first time in ages. 


End file.
